ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 Welcomes Employees’ Children

• More than 30 children of company’s employees visited the power plant, as well as the Sofia office of the company within the Proud with My Parents’ Work project

• This year the number of companies taking part in the national initiative of the UN Global Compact Network in Bulgaria, which ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 has been supporting since its setting up, has doubled

Mednikarovo, October 31^st, 2014. For the second time ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 TPP welcomed its employees’ children in order to acquaint them with the job and workplace of their parents. This time the participants were 34 and they had the chance to visit not only the power plant, but also the Sofia office of the company, where they could see with their own eyes what part of a manager’s day is like. The event was part of the Proud with My Parents’ Work project, organized by the UN Global Compact Network in Bulgaria, which this year united 24 companies in the country. All of them held similar events on the territory of their sites, including production facilities, in order to help the children become committed to their parents’ everyday lives and to make their minds whether they want to follow their parents into the same profession and turn it into a family tradition.

“Last year’s event left a lasting memory with us and explicitly proved the importance of this undertaking,” said Garry Levesley, CEO of ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3, adding “Placing the employees’ children in a work environment creates a feeling about the value of each person’s work and gives meaning to words such as commitment, responsibility, purposefulness, recognition and belonging.”

The kids that the power plant willingly welcomed were divided into three groups according to their age. In an interesting and engaging way they were presented details about the various professions exercised here, how the electricity, which is crucially important to life in the modern world, is generated, and the care the company takes of the environmental friendliness of their and their parents’ surroundings. The little ones were particularly impressed by the efforts made for the safety of their parents, so that every evening they can go home to them untroubled. After that the youngest ones played interesting games related to ecology and coloured pictures of the everyday lives of their moms and dads. The children from the middle group engaged in interactive activities and in arranging a puzzle depicting the power plant, while for the eldest ones there was an impressive presentation and a tour of the power plant. Finally, all three groups gathered to share what they had learnt during this eventful day of thrilling discoveries and for dessert had the unique chance to watch a demonstration of the operation of a steam turbine.

The aim of the Proud with My Parents’ Work project is to use children’s curiosity and ability to get impressed in order to help them realize that everyone’s work is important and has to be respected, as well as to provide them with early professional orientation. The project is also valuable to the company itself, because it helps develop its internal relations, and enrich its relationships with the family members of its employees. The methodology and the idea of the project have been developed by the UN Global Compact Network in Bulgaria in collaboration with the Bulgarian Charities Aid Foundation.

About the Proud with My Parents’ Work initiative

For the second year in a row Bulgarian companies open their doors for their employees’ children within the Proud with My Parents’ Work national initiative. The idea is to show the children why their parents’ work is important by means of specially developed programmes and games.

The initiative is of the UN Global Compact Network in Bulgaria and its goal is to become annual and encompass the business countrywide. The number of the participating companies has doubled since last year and this autumn 24 companies will welcome more than 900 children from 8 cities and towns – Sofia, Plovdiv, Panagyurishte, Galabovo, Ognyanovo, Devnya, Russe, Pirdop and Slivnitsa. The project enjoys great media interest and has 18 media partners: 13 national, 2 from Russe and 3 from Plovdiv.

About ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3

ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 is an important part of the large energy family of the international company ContourGlobal, independent power producer. Also the plant guarantees the electrical independence of Bulgaria by utilizing local fuel and supplying the national energy market.

In Bulgaria, ContourGlobal is the majority owner of ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 TPP, one of the four thermal power plants in the Maritsa East Complex. It is the first lignite coal-fired thermal power plant in the Balkans, which operates in full compliance with the highest European standards for safety and environment preservation. ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 produces clean reliable electricity utilizing Bulgarian sourced fuel at competitive a price.